Abbott vs the ABC

TONY Abbott has continued to apply pressure on the ABC this morning, as the furore over its decision to allow a former terrorism suspect on Q&A shows no signs of dying down.

During an interview on Today, the Prime Minister was unrelenting in his criticism of the ABC, which yesterday said it “made an error in judgement” for allowing Zaky Mallah to confront federal MPs on Q&A without any security checks.

That admission does not seem to have satisfied the ABC’s critics. According to The Australian, Mr Abbott has told the Liberal partyroom he will consider a government-wide boycott of Q&A.

“We all know that Q&A is a lefty lynch mob and we will be looking at this and we will bring something back when we return,” he reportedly told angry MPs.

The Australian Q&A is extremely biased, and good to see MPs calling it out.

Mallah was charged in 2003 of planning a suicide attack. He basically got off on a technicality but was convicted of threatening officials. He has been in Syria, and has published guides on how Australians can help the war in Syria. There has been a huge backlash to them having him in the audience for Q&A, in which he said because of the Liberal Govt, people should go and join ISIL.

When asked about the report on Today this morning, Mr Abbott repeated his concerns that the broadcaster had given a national platform, and even a global platform, to Mallah.

He said it was interesting that when Mallah was sentenced in 2005, the judge was critical of the platform the media had given to him.

“Now of course our supposed national broadcaster is giving a platform to someone who hates us, who hates our way of life, supports the terrorists that would do us harm,” he said.

“The issue for the ABC, our national broadcaster, is whose side are you on?

“Because all too often the ABC seems to be on everyone’s side but Australia’s.”

The fact taxpayers are forced to fund the ABC is galling for many Australians.

A couple of years ago the Daily Telegraph‘s Miranda Devine was invited to be a particular week’s token conservative on the ABC’s Q & A program.

Concerned she would face the usual anti-conservative hostility from the show’s live audience and fellow guests, Miranda called to ask if I might join the audience to offer some support.

Naturally, I agreed. As did another friend, Caroline Overington, then working for The Australian. So Miranda contacted Q & A‘s producers to tell them she had a couple of mates coming along, and asked if tickets could be provided.

That’s when the trouble began.

Q & A insisted Overington and I could only watch the show from the secure confines of the ABC’s backstage green room, where we would presumably be monitored for any signs of rebellion. Apparently the show was worried that if we were left unattended in the crowd, we might cause an insurgency.

It took several assurances from Miranda that we wouldn’t provoke an uprising before the ABC relented and allowed us to quietly view the program among other Q & A audience members.

Of course, as we now know, the entire issue could have been avoided if instead of being dangerous conservatives we had previously pleaded guilty to threatening to kill ASIO officials, supported an Islamic caliphate and believed in martyrdom for the Muslim cause.

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Comments (13)

Adolf Fiinkensein

And they continue to rebroadcast the programme without any cuts to the offensive parts. BTW The ABC set this whole thing up. No less than five senior producers were in touch with him before the programme aired and they paid for a shuttle bus to pick up the prick and take him home. No such privilege for anyone else.

Fentex

For the curious here’s a report that partly transcribes the Q & A exchange in question.

Curious about this claim Mallah was acquitted on a technicality I’ve gone looking for an account of his trial – and according to this report he was found not guilty at trial by a jury, not acquitted on any kind of technicality.

So the ‘technicality’ part seems to be a lie, probably intended to undermine opposition and bolster the ‘tough on terrorism’ reputation of a government that wants extra-judicial powers to rescind citizenship.

And again in a year people celebrate the Magna Carta governments continue to destroy it’s legacy by posturing rather than producing robust laws that can be effective within judicial systems.

Huevon

I don’t want to judge too harshly – there are plenty of The Infected here in NZ too – but the Leftist rot seems to be particularly deep over in Oz. Hell, even my super rich relatives seem to have become hard core liberal/anarchists in recent years (although not so much that the multi-million dollar Melbourne home and regular international holidays need to go in solidarity with the revolution). I don’t envy Abbott his job at all.

Manolo

Another case of the Left extolling the virtues of multiculturalism to advance its dastardly cause. Even better, if the person at the centre of the ABC debacle is a barbarian “Aussie” Muslim, the immigrant type liked by NZ Quran-lovers.

s.russell

Mallah went to Syria to fight with the Free Syrian Army (the group that the US and Australia are now supporting, funding, arming and training) against Assad. He did not fight with IS.

Since returning he has been an outspoken critic of IS, condemning it and telling other Muslims that IS is a fraud and they would be stupid to support it.

Your quote above is out of context and grossly misleading. He warned that the Abbott Govt’s knee-jerk actions and anti-Muslim rhetoric were just contributing to the disaffection that was leading young Muslims to support IS. he was NOT advocating this, but warning that Abbott’s tactics were backfiring.

I do not dispute the Left-wing bias of ABC, or agree with it, but I do support free speech. And silencing those who you disagree with is wrong and counterproductive. That is something I thought you might have said yourself. I invite you to examine the situation more closely, and think about it more carefully.

CHFR

Fentex

The more I read about this the more it seems Zaky Mallah has learnt from his past follies and others not.

Apparently an opponent of Daesh and regretful angry youth his comments that an oppressive government does more to recruit it’s own enemies than help undo them seem more rational to me than those vilifying him for his past and conflating an avowed enemy of Daesh with those he opposes.

deadrightkev

“TVNZ pays the government money. Taxpayers do not fund it.”

Graeme, I seriously doubt that is true if you add back all of the years it has had equity investment from the taxpayer.

Also, if you add back the $50M slush fund that is MTV which used to broadcast “cultural” stuff it definitely loses a heap of money. The government does not need to own a TV network or fund a race based one IMHO.